WAYNE SIMEON and REPATRIATION COMMISSION

[2009] AATA 581

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2009] AATA 581

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No   2008/0547

VETERANS'      APPEALS        DIVISION		)
Re		WAYNE SIMEON

Applicant

And REPATRIATION COMMISSION

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Mr John Handley, Senior Member

Date5 August 2009  

PlaceMelbourne

Decision

 The decision under review made by the Veterans’ Review Board with respect to the condition of hypertension is affirmed.  The decision insofar as is concerned Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and alcohol dependence is set aside and in substitution it is decided that those conditions are war-caused.

1.       The application is remitted to the respondent for assessment of pension in accordance with these reasons.

..............................................

John Handley
  Senior Member

CATCHWORDS – veterans’ entitlements – applicant served in South Vietnam; observed a body, apparently executed, tied to a cairn on side of a roadway; when driving a truck with 8 tonnes of crushed rock its brakes failed when on an incline; whether events occurred; whether they constitute category 1A and/or 1B stressors; PTSD, alcohol dependence and abuse war-caused; decision set aside.

Mines v Repatriation Commission [2004] FCA 1331

Repatriation Commission v Deledio (1998) 49 ALD 193

REASONS FOR DECISION

Mr John Handley, Senior Member           

2.       The applicant is presently 60 years of age and was previously a member of the Australian Army.  He claims acceptance of the conditions of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Major Depressive Disorder and Alcohol Dependence as war‑caused.  Claims for acceptance of those conditions were rejected by the respondent and affirmed by the Veterans' Review Board (VRB). 

3.       It was the case of the applicant that the conditions for which he now seeks acceptance arose out of stressful incidents whilst he served in South Vietnam (SVN) between 24 September 1970 and 19 August 1971.  He was then serving as a truck driver in the Transport Division of the 1^st Field Squadron of the Royal Australian Engineers at Nui Dat.  The applicant presently receives 90 per cent of General Rate pension having regard to a number of other accepted disabilities, one of which is hypertension and which was challenged in these proceedings by the respondent.  That is to say, it sought by these proceedings to have a finding made that the condition of hypertension should not have been accepted as war‑caused.

4.       The applicant relied on two stressors in service being the sight of a deceased person on the side of a roadway approximately three months after arriving in SVN and, on another occasion, the brakes of a truck failing when he was carrying eight tonnes of crushed rock. 

5.       The applicant said that he is presently employed as a cleaner and a relief cook at the Barham Hospital.  He grew up in Barham in southern New South Wales and participated in sports and other recreations.  He said he was a sociable person.  He left school at the age of 15 and worked with his father who was self employed as a drycleaner.  At the age of 19 he obtained employment at the local hospital…